As I cannot wait for the 2011 football season to arrive I simply must preoccupy myself with discussions of what is to come. To start, I thought I would evaluate and rank the coaches of the Pac 12.

1. Chip Kelly. Coach Kelly is sitting in the first spot for one reason only. 22-4. Kelly has only coached for two seasons, but in those two seasons he has 2 conference Championships, 2 conference COY awards, 1 national coach of the year award and of course 2 BCS appearances. The glaring negative on his resume is 0-2 in bowl games. Despite the lack of a bowl win, his innovative offenses keep him at the top of the list.

2. Kyle Whittingham. Coach Whittingham has an overall record of 58-20 (.744). He is 6-1 in bowl games including 2 BCS rings (Urban Meyer stepped down prior to Fiesta bowl, but stayed on to co-coach the game). Whit has 1 national coach of the year award.

3. Dennis Erickson. Coach Erickson seems to travel, but he wins everywhere he goes with a record of 173-89-1 (.658). His resume includes two national championships (Miami) and 3 Pac 10 COY awards. He has taken his coaching talents to the NFL and has led his college teams to 11 bowl games where he is 5-6.

4. Jeff Tedford. Although Coach Tedford lacks some of the coaching accolades of others, he is just consistantly good. His overall record is 72-42 (.632). He has won two Pac 10 COY awards. He is a good 5-2 in bowl games and led Cal to 7 straight bowls before this past year.

5. Mike Riley. Coach Riley may not have the best regular season winning percentage 69-54 (.561). He does however know how to coach and has a great bowl record of 5-1, one Pac10 COY award, and has been the reason, I believe, that Oregon State is relevant again after 28 years of sub .500 records.

6. Lane Kiffin. Coach Kiffin is controversial if nothing else. His college coaching career has been short, so only time will really tell how Kiffin will pan out. He is 15-11 (.577) in his two years. He is 0-1 in bowl games (USC was not eligible in 2010). He seems to be a great recruiter, and had Tennessee fans hearts enough to cause them to riot at his departure.

7. Rick Neuheisel. Coach Neuheisel is a personal favorite of mine, but is sliding faster than any other coach in the conference..if not the nation. He has a winning percentage of .609 (81-52). He has not fared well in his current position though. He does win in bowl games (5-3) and has BCS victory (2001 Rose Bowl with Washington).

8. Steve Sarkisian. Coach Sarkisian is an up and comer and rising fast. He has an overall record of 12-13 (.480). His team is rising though. Add a great recruiting class to a Holiday bowl win and he is one of the hottest names in the country.

9. Mike Stoops. Coach Stoops hasn't had the success of the others on this list, but he has led Arizona to three straight bowl games (1-2). He is 40-45 (.471) overall but has his team in the right direction and has had Arizona ranked recently.

10. David Shaw. As Coach Shaw has not coached a down yet, it's hard to put him any higher on this list yet. He was very successful as the OC at Stanford last year, and with the talent on his team for 2011 he may find himself at the top of the list in one year.

11. Jon Embree. Like Coach Shaw, Embree cannot be placed much higher than this without any coaching behind him. He is in a little more difficult position as Colorado is building right now. With time we will know better.

12. Paul Wulff. Coach Wulff has had succes at the FCS level, but has not seen too many winning days at WSU. He has only 2 wins in conference play in his three years. Bright side? He has only one way to go.

As the AFL season winds down I find it interesting to note that this season has been about as predictable as one could have guessed after watching round one. There are, in my opinion, three teams in this race. St. Kilda is the wildcard because of their tormenting defence. Then it comes down to the Cats and Magpies.

As a Magpie supporter I wish it were any other team. I've personally been in the MCG and watched Geelong get into my boys' heads. Collingwood has the talent to compete, but they usually falter late against this foe. Thus, with five weeks left I would have to predict that Geelong will repeat as champions.

It pains me to make such a prediction, and my opinion might change in two weeks, as they play each other for the last time in regular season. As an Aussie Rules fan I would love to see some fresh blood rise up and knock these guys out. I thought the Saints had them last year.

Is there any other fans state side that watch, enjoy, follow, or are even mildly interested in this game? I'd love to know.

In an off-season full of rumors, conference re-alignment, and some bitter and oft contentious comparisons between the big four "non-BCS" teams, I decided to look up all comparable stats, create a table, and see how closely these teams actually do compare.

I took the results and gave each team points based upon the order they finish, relating to the other three.

All numbers are based upon the "BCS" era (1999-present), and are figured with end of season rankings (EOS)

Give credit to BYU for scheduling difficult teams. The Cougs played 21 games against teams that finished ranked in the top 25. Compared to 17 for Utah, 16 for TCU and 15 for Boise. BYU took on top ranked USC twice while the other teams met their biggest challenges in bowl games. How did they fare in those games though?

It's hard to argue with quality BCS wins when factoring which team is moving the national scales. Tie Boise and Utah. I purposely only rate teams that are ranked at the end of the year. Wins over teams that are ranked at the time of the game are impressive, but are ultimately empty in retrospect. Who then has BCS wins and appearances?

There is definitely a correlation between going undefeated and appearing in BCS games, however there was an undefeated season that didn't result in a BCS game. Ending a season with no losses is a fantastic accomplishment.

TCU gets the advantage here with a lot of wins over bottom feeders like Baylor, Vanderbilt and Northwestern. Perhaps it's better to look at Bowl appearances because you know you will be playing winning teams.

I work with a Boise graduate, and he desperately wants me to include Conference championships, but I can't bring myself to do it as three of the teams play in the same conference and beat each other up, while his team racks up titles year after year. I can compare head to head matchups though.

I've thought about other statistics to include that relate to computer rankings, order to complete the accomplishments, Road versus Home records, etc. No matter what I look at it comes down to Boise and Utah, with TCU closely behind....then trailing in almost every single catagory is BYU.

Thoughts are welcome. I have one co-worker (big USC fan) that thinks that I can only include numbers that can be compared and rated versus BCS schools (rankings, draftees, recruiting, and bowl stats). My Boise friend wants me to get rid of any stat that is based off of polls or human opinion. He simply wants wins, titles, and head to head matchups. I think you need to include both because college football is based upon both.